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As a forward, this was the first game I have actually released. I decided I was unhappy with the combat in the end, due to having some mechanics I don't agree with now, but I had put so much time and work into it, I thought I could at least share this part with the community. Maybe it'll inspire someone else.

Devil Star is a humble, medieval RPG set in a world in strife. A mad necromancer scours the continent, looking for a powerful object known as the Devil Star.

+ Utilizes a fully custom menu, equipment, and battle system.
+ Tactical gameplay is encouraged with an easy-to-learn battle system.

***The game is currently in beta, and this is only the first part. Please excuse the assortment of fonts used for the tooltips, the game is currently being reworked significantly.***

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You begin the game controlling the ranger/mercenary Lorcan Blackstone and his cohort, Rain Starfire, druid of the earth.

Lorcan Blackstone
Combat Abilities: Bow + Arrow and Short Sword
Some example abilities are as follows:

+ Quick Shot: Fires an arrow at an enemy, causing physical damage. (Can strike flying enemies)
+ Bane Arrow: Fires an arrow, dipped in poison at an enemy, causing physical damage and leaving them poisoned for several rounds. (Can strike flying enemies)

+ Chill Edge: Slashes at an enemy with an icy blade, causing physical damage and leaving the enemy slowed for several seconds.
+ Vigour: Lorcan focuses his combat prowess, increasing the damage of his next few sword attacks.

Rain Starfire
Combat Abilities: Protection Magick and Natural Magick
Some example abilities are as follows:

+ Prevent: Reduces damage from the next physical attack.
+ Protection: Increases armor for several seconds.

+ Fissure: Opens natural vents beneath all enemies' feet, causing fire damage to the enemy party.
+ Combustion: Natural heat around an enemy intensifies and explodes, causing fire damage.

The combat system uses a very non-traditional approach. There is no standard 'Attack, Magic, Item, Defend.' Instead, each character has access to the party's inventory, the ability to refresh themselves (regenerating HP/MP) and access to two completely unique trees of abilities. Each tree has 6 abilities which totals out to 48 total abilities. Each character may also have two accessories equipped at one time. Mix and match accessories to maximize your battle prowess!

Characters generate Stamina as the battle flows and when a character has reached 100 Stamina, they may act. Each command uses a different amount of Stamina, so balancing your Stamina usage is important.

Latest Blog

How to start out Guide

I've been told it's not exactly easy to start my game out, so I wanted to post a little tutorial since there is none in the game, see if I can't help anyone out.

There is a concept of ground enemies and flying enemies. Flying enemies can only be attacked with Lorcan's bow and arrow at first. Rain learns an ability to strike anyone (which would include flying) but not until leaving the forest.

With regards to combat, there is no such thing as a standard turn. Each command uses a differing amount of the yellow ATB bar. This is called the Delay. A character gets their turn when they reach 100 ATB, so using an ability with a 40 Delay will reduce the bar to 60. When they reach 100, they may act again. Don't be afraid to use abilities with short Delays even though they seem weak--this is how they are balanced.

Use items sparingly and probably only during boss fights. Save points restore all your HP and MP so use those as healing points while adventuring around. Also clicking on the character (where the cursor defaults) during their turn will initiate a Recover command which restores 1 HP and 1 MP (later on it's 2 and then 3). Using Recover can really turn the tide when you just need a few more HP or MP and don't want to use an item.

Rain's Prevent ability is her makeshift healing spell. It doesn't heal directly, but prevents damage from the next attack, in effect healing that target by the amount of damage it prevented. As noted above, Prevent has a very short Delay so don't be afraid to use it constantly. It also costs 0 MP, so go wild.

Finally, for boss fights, it's almost mandatory to have Rain cast Protect. It reduces damage to the party member, and at the beginning of the game, it prevents anywhere from 1/3 to all of the incoming damage as numbers are very low in this game. Using Lorcan's Chill Edge to slow the boss and/or his minions is a good idea as well, though you may not have the MP to do it.

If you ever have questions or concerns, please let me know :) Thanks!

Posts

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Yeah, it's kinda why I haven't worked on it. That battle system is super old, it was my first real attempt at a custom battle system, inspired by The Frozen World. I didn't have a ton of knowledge of RPG Maker and found this to be the easiest way to handle it.

My new project (Stamina CBS Project) is a super-evolved form of that game (with a new story too, since the Devil Star story wasn't very fleshed out.) It has standard key-press controls.

I may go back to it one day and just write an ending, just so it can be a complete game, but it doesn't seem like a lot of people are clamoring for the continuation of this demo, so it's low on the priorities.

Thanks for the feedback! :)
I haven't played much yet but I see a lot of potential in this custom battle system. If you still intend to work on it, I'd highly recommend setting the cursor's starting position on the Attack icon, as well as design a variable-based Key Press/Move Cursor system instead of making the Cursor the "Hero".
You have to take difficulty complaints with a grain of salt. Often people won't invest too much effort into battles.

I'm assuming those people didn't bother taking into account the array of defensive abilities at your disposal. The immunity/protect abilities made the boss fight a piece of cake. But not too easy! You know what I mean...
author=Creation
I don't think he was too hard. I didn't grind at all and went straight for the boss so you know.

Don't forget to sumbit your game again once you've made some changes.


Yeah, you're an exception because you weren't trying to explore all over, but I've had other people tell me he was too hard.

I'm actually working on the game now, though, so I hope to be able to put up a new version soon!
Creation
An avid lover of Heartache 101
1446
I don't think he was too hard. I didn't grind at all and went straight for the boss so you know.

Don't forget to sumbit your game again once you've made some changes.
author=ashriot
author=narcodis
Hey, played all the way through the demo. Pretty cool stuff! Really liked the layout of the maps and finding all the treasures and such. Hope you plan on continuing this.
Awesome! Thanks, I am planning on getting some work done on it. I was inspired by Creation's P or F video to allow the player to spend some skill points or something when leveling up. I just haven't decided on a way to do it yet. Glad you liked it!

Oh, I wanted to ask if you had a lot of trouble on the first boss with the kobold leader. It seems like several people have had trouble killing him and so I wanted to know if he gave you any trouble or if he was easy.


I didn't think he was too hard. Honestly, I thought the difficulty was pretty well balanced.
author=narcodis
Hey, played all the way through the demo. Pretty cool stuff! Really liked the layout of the maps and finding all the treasures and such. Hope you plan on continuing this.

Awesome! Thanks, I am planning on getting some work done on it. I was inspired by Creation's P or F video to allow the player to spend some skill points or something when leveling up. I just haven't decided on a way to do it yet. Glad you liked it!

Oh, I wanted to ask if you had a lot of trouble on the first boss with the kobold leader. It seems like several people have had trouble killing him and so I wanted to know if he gave you any trouble or if he was easy.
Hey, played all the way through the demo. Pretty cool stuff! Really liked the layout of the maps and finding all the treasures and such. Hope you plan on continuing this.
author=Necrile
I'm not sure why other rm2k3 games work for me, but not this one. Now it's saying "hero2 cannot be opened". Damn shame too, I really wanted to play this game.

Edit: Btw, remember when we were comparing our original battle systems a while back? :P


Yeah I remember because you have a cool avatar XD I hope its going well for ya!

In regard to the game probs, the issue is probably just that I created the game in RPG maker 2k originally, then when I got 2k3, I just tried opening it in 2k3, which ended up breaking a lot of the RTP stuff. Now it's stuck in some sort of limbo between the two with issues that come up once in a while. I'm going to probably just redo the game using 2k3 so that it's one fluid game.

I'm not sure what type of file Hero2 was. I looked around and didn't really see anything. I'm guessing it's a Battle sprite or maybe just a Char/FaceSet. You could try copying more files and renaming them just to force it through. I didn't use any RTP as far as I know, so those errors are just the default files trying to be pulled in for things like the battle sprites (which I don't use.)

Again, if this doesn't work or is too much work to deal with, I'm going to patch it up and re-release it in a smaller, cleaner package (eventually--hopefully soon!)
I'm not sure why other rm2k3 games work for me, but not this one. Now it's saying "hero2 cannot be opened". Damn shame too, I really wanted to play this game.

Edit: Btw, remember when we were comparing our original battle systems a while back? :P
author=Necrile
It's just giving me a "file vehicle cannot be opened" error message? Is this a problem on my end? D:


OK, I checked into it. Vehicle is just the default sprites it uses for the vehicles in the game (boat, airship, etc.) which I don't even use in my game. It's an RTP file, so I'm not sure why it's missing. You can just copy an existing CharSet file and rename it vehicle and it will work. It just wants a file to put into that spot.

Let me know if it works out for you!
Hmmm... I just uploaded a revised demo maybe I broke something. I'll check it out
Thanks for the heads up :D
It's just giving me a "file vehicle cannot be opened" error message? Is this a problem on my end? D:
Thanks! Im glad you're interested. Let me know what you think and how far you got. :)
i am looking forward to this game. i always find the custom systems very interesting and yours seems pretty cool, man
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